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Shel Israel’s, Twitterville: Book review and Giveaway

Simon Mainwaring / Social / 9 years ago

Twitterville is the first book in my new giveaway-extravaganza-bonanza-athon. Now I hear giveaways can get problematic so I’ll post some guidelines on my site shortly. But the goal here is just to keep going ideas flowing among us and to say thanks for your support. Here’s how it works.

Every two weeks I’ll review a book and then give it away to someone who has commented on a blog post in the last week. I’ll try and keep up with the latest hot titles like Seth Godin’s Linchpin or Brian Solis’s Engage and then give them away. Once someone is chosen you email me a work address and I mail you the book. Simple. But enough of that. To Twitterville!

Shel starts by sharing with readers the origins of Twitter as well as how home offices, government, media and non-profit organizations use it to help their branding, advertising, and marketing. He covers real-life accounts on how many brands and social media leaders have used Twitter as a way to save a business, starting a new venture, fund-raise, get closer to customers or build a brand from scratch. All great stuff. Shel goes on to analyze why certain approaches worked for certain people and businesses so his reader’s can do the same. For me, it was a great read for any business that wants to use twitter to build and grow.

So hopefully that helps and feel free to comment of a blog post in the coming week so I can send out a copy to someone.

14 Comments

I'm a graduate student doing my thesis on social media. Twitterville is of big interest to me since I'm looking to focus on twitter. I had a chance to peruse the book at Barnes & Noble a few weeks back and found it to be a great reference and foundation for my introduction of my thesis.

No worries. True. I could send them digitally. Never thought of that. Maybe there will be a second hand market soon. Hmmmmm. You got me thinking. iPad has its own problems with no Flash capacity. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out. S.

Aaaaahhhh let the battle for standards begin. Again we will see proprietary software against open-source.

Re: iPad. Not only does it not have flash, it doesn't have a camera. Interesting strategy Apple has taken to leave off major pieces of their Apple puzzle, include it later (flash probably not) to increase sales. The sales of iPad Gen 1 will pay for additional costs in functionality in Gen 2. Apple know their audience well and understand that many will hold off for Gen 2 of the iPad. However, there will be a huge number of early adopters to purchase Gen 1.

Ironic too to see Apple use Flash to promote the iPad yet not enable it on the iPad [see here http://bit.ly/chHLug%5D. Who knows, maybe Apple is playing a patience game and waiting for the proliferation of HTML5 which isn't as resource-heavy as flash yet can potentially make Flash obsolete.

If Adobe can 'lighten' the load of Flash and step up their game to another level, how could Apple say no?

So agree. I think Apple is do a smart marketing play as they have many times before. And I do think HTML5 will win out in the end. I have no idea when HTML5 will hit though. This really feels like the start of a whole new ballgame. Exciting. Thx as ever, Simon

Twitter is a multi-dimensional tool that can be used by businesses for everything from promotions (like discounts), customer service, relationship building, creating authenticity, marketing research, crisis management, and more. However there are still many business owners who think its a waste of time. I'm adding this book to my reading list because the case studies can really come in handy when I need to convince business owners that it can help their business.